Meet Utsav Mitra, the special officer of Piyush Goyal

Ravi Teja Sharma, ET BureauAug 1, 2014, 09.15AM IST

(27-year-old Mitra has handled…)

NEW DELHI: Utsav Mitra has been a close aide to Piyush Goyal in the past one year, having made himself indispensable during BJP's election campaign. And when Goyal was picked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to handle the critical energy sector, he wanted Mitra on board. He's been appointed officer on special duty (OSD) by the minister of state with independent charge for power, coal and new and renewable energy, possibly the youngest for the role at 27.

Mitra proved his usefulness for the party elsewhere as well, handling all communication for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley's election campaign.

in Amritsar, working on BJP's social media and digital campaigns, besides drafting speeches and presentations for senior politicians.

He looks younger than 27 but anyone who has worked or interacted with him would tell you that a very mature character dwells behind the Peter Pan looks. You require maturity to work with career politicians and their staff of many years, deftly managing egos and expectations. A government official who has seen him work with the minister over the last two months - as an OSD unofficially - says Mitra is trying to get accustomed to the bureaucracy, which is a tough task. At the ministry, one of the most highprofile ones where big guns of Indian industry come calling, Mitra has worked hard to prove that he is more than just a ministerial favourite.

"His job is not just to be a conduit but also to suggest improvement on subjects that he understands. He is also trying to learn, take guidance and earn the trust of senior bureaucrats around him, realise that in government nothing happens quickly," the official, who did not want to be named, said.

But Mitra also knows that things are going to change. This new government under Narendra Modi and his young deputies wants work done quickly.

A year back just after he had quit his cushy job at Bain Capital as a private equity analyst, the economics graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce had told ET why he volunteered to work as a 'foot-soldier' for BJP. "The intent was to explore politics and policy making. You can't do that without getting in and what better way than to start early," he had said.

What he wanted was a deeper understanding of India: Hopes, aspirations and dreams of its people "and one tends to appreciate it only when you live with them, travel with them.

He landed the opportunity after he cold emailed Piyush Goyal last year when he was the spokesperson of BJP. Luck was on his side and Goyal drafted him in for his researchbased inputs on a range of things from the budget to helping him with his speeches.

Mitra was used to the corporate way of functioning. The political way was a 180 degree shift, something he got used to quickly. It wasn't like the corporate world where you state things as they are. It was different here. "Political analysis is not about black and white. Political communication was a big learning for him and how he writes now has changed," says a person who worked closely with Mitra at BJP.